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Imperial Inquisition
The Imperial Inquisition is a governmental organisation within the Empire of Cyrodiil, tasked with gathering and analysing intelligence as well as hunting down and putting an end to threats to the safety of the Empire. The Inquisition's operatives, known as Inquisitors, roam all across Tamriel in their neverending duty, stealing intelligence, spying on allies and enemies alike, and arresting or eliminating (potential) dissidents. Though the Inquisition's existence is no secret, the general populace is mostly unaware of them, as Inquisitors do not reveal their status to civilians unless absolutely necessary. Overview Purpose The Imperial Inquisition was founded by order of Tiber Septim himself in order to protect the Empire from those who would seek to destroy it from within. After Tiber Septim's death, the Inquisition's purpose expanded to include fending off foreign threats as well. According to official statements by the Inquisition, its duties are: * Counterintelligence * Gathering and analysing foreign intelligence * Tracking down potential dissidents, both foreign and domestic, and, if deemed necessary, eliminating them Mode of operation The Inquisition carries out its operations by deploying its Inquisitors all across Tamriel. These Inquisitors usually operate alone, and are not recognisable by any sort of uniform; indeed, singling out an Inquisitor in a crowd is practically impossible. Unless it is necessary for their operations, Inquisitors keep their official status a secret from non-Imperial personnel. The only way Inquisitors can be identified is by their badge of office, which they keep concealed; this badge is a small metal insignia, displaying a symbol of an eye with an orange iris and stylised red eyelids. This symbol is known as the Inquisitorial Eye, and can also be seen on the Inquisition's sigil. Inquisitors operate on a high degree of independence, and are sanctioned to fulfill their objectives in the ways they see fit. As such, no single Inquisitor operates in exactly the same way; where some prefer to infiltrate and impersonate, others take to assassination or outright violence to carry out their missions. Not all actions Inquisitors undertake are entirely legal - however, they are mostly above the law within the Empire, or they are otherwise too skilled and slick to be caught. Inquisitors come and go as they please, returning to their Conclaves after finishing their assignments to then immediately be issued a new task. The life of an Inquisitor is one with little room for rest and vacation, and thus requires utmost devotion to the cause. Structure Despite the fact that Inquisitors operate mostly independently, the Imperial Inquisition does contain a command structure. The entire organisation is directed by an elected member of the Elder Council, who takes the position of the Inquisitorial Director. In principle, the Director is the commander-in-chief of the Inquisition, however they rarely interfere with the business of individual Inquisitors. The Inquisitors instead receive their directives from Inquisitorial Conclaves, local outposts which can be found all over Tamriel (though their locations are kept secret even from other Imperial personnel). No Inquisitor is bound to a single Conclave; though many elect to stick to one, they are free to report in at any Conclave in Tamriel if it is convenient or even simply because they desire a change of scenery. History After Tiber Septim unified the entirety of Tamriel under his banner, he came to find that military strength alone would not keep the populace under control. The Empire needed a way to root out internal threats at their roots. To that end, the Imperial Inquisition was founded in 3E 1. The fledgling organisation operated differently than it would in the future; large numbers of uniformed Inquisitors were deployed all across Tamriel, establishing Conclaves in the form of official government buildings. Under Tiber Septim, the Inquisition quickly ensured that the people of the Empire became loyal subjects, and that rebellions and uprisings were out of the question. The Imperial Inquisition underwent significant reforms during the reign of Emperor Uriel I, who promoted a more clandestine approach in comparison to the straightforward technique the Inquisition used up to that point. Inquisitors ceased to be uniformed, making it difficult to distinguish them among the commonfolk - which in turn allowed them to carry out their duties more effectively. The Inquisition played unnoticed yet vital parts in many of the Empire's wars. Notable, for example, was the Inquisitorial involvement in Uriel V Septim's reconquest of Tamriel. As capable a warrior as Uriel might have been, he would not have been able to succeed if it had not been for a number of Inquisitors influencing the populace behind the scenes. Several resistance organisations were silenced and dismantled in their entirety from within by undercover Inquisitors, so that they could not rile up the local populace against the Imperial overlords. Trivia * Though inspiration has been drawn from both the Catholic Inquisition and the Inquisition from Games Workshop's ''Warhammer 40,000, ''the Imperial Inquisition shares more similarities with the Central Intelligence Agency. Category:The Darkest Night Category:Factions